The Life Of Pablo

Kanye West Responds to “Multi-Racial” Casting-Call Backlash

It’s Yeezy season yet again, and Kanye West continues to provide the world with more mystery, more controversy, and of course, more fashion. After his last show, which also featured the debut of his The Life of Pablo album along with hundreds of models, was brought to the literal masses at Madison Square Garden, it’s hard to imagine how he’ll raise the bar. This is Kanye West we’re talking about though, the man whose latest tour sees him performing on a platform above a teeming crowd. He’s obviously got something major planned for his Yeezy Season 4 show on September 7, and last week, he provided fans and critics with a taste of what’s to come—and a chance for some outrage.

On September 3, West tweeted out a casting call for makeup-free, “multiracial women only.” Backlash ensued from Twitter, blogs, and beyond, accusing him, among other things, of wanting black features, but not black women, in his show. He responded to the criticism in a new interview with Vogue, providing additional context that skirts the line of “Sorry you were offended.”

“The ten thousand people that showed up didn’t have a problem with it,” he said. “How do you word the idea that you want all variations of black? How do you word that exactly?”

Perhaps by saying just that? While thousands of people did show up to the casting call, so did protesters, but West stands by the fact that he’s “really not here for controversy.” In fact, he would go so far as to be invisible to avoid courting it.

“When people asked me, ‘if you could have a superpower, what would would it be?’ I said the ability to be invisible. And this was before I was famous,” he said. “Because there’s absolutely no way for me or my family to be invisible, I’ve put that longing for invisibility into the clothes.”

Invisibility to West can mean anything from creating neutral-toned essentials that millions want to wear, to Season 4’s thigh-high, completely clear boots that his wife Kim Kardashian West recently sported. That’s about as close to invisibility as he’s going to get.

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